Lightweight Invariants with Full Dependent Types

Dependent types allow a programmer to express invariant properties of functions, such as the relationship between the input and output lengths of a list. Several “lightweight” approaches to dependent types have been proposed for existing systems, such as Haskell’s Generalised Algebraic Data Types or Type Families. Such approaches are lightweight in the sense that they require minimal modifications to existing systems. However, while these extensions are apparently simple, we find that we often run into limitations fairly quickly. In this paper we will explore these limitations, and show that a full dependent type system allows more straightforward implementation of simple invariants without restricting expressivity.